WASHINGTON — Two new rapid expert consultations from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine offer lessons learned from the 2020 fall semester regarding COVID-19 testing and guidance on student behavior, as college administrators plan for the 2021 spring semester.

Encouraging Protective COVID-19 Behaviors Among College Students explores how schools can encourage students to adopt behaviors that help prevent spread of the virus, such as mask wearing and physical distancing. Findings from developmental psychology and brain research about adolescent and young adult behavior can guide campus leaders: Many adolescents and young adults are socially driven, with a strong desire for reward and acceptance. Identity, agency, and autonomy are centrally important during the college years — and exploration and risk taking are a normative part of development.

Making a behavior easy to start and rewarding to repeat, tying a behavior to existing habits, providing alternatives to unwanted behaviors, and providing specific descriptions of desired behaviors are strategies that campus leaders can employ to make it more likely that protective behaviors will become habitual for students. Examples include tying mask wearing to students’ phone use, or giving students guidance to establish and maintain the health of their own “social pods.” The document also shares communication strategies, including emphasizing college students’ sense of responsibility, building on their sense of activism, and considering how they make decisions about risk-taking.

COVID-19 Testing Strategies for Colleges and Universities says that based on campus responses in the fall 2020 semester, fast, frequent testing can help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in a large and diverse university community, but it is only one part of a larger response. A comprehensive approach to preventing the virus requires colleges to rapidly isolate COVID-19 cases and quarantine their close contacts, and use contact tracing, mask wearing, and physical distancing, among other measures.

Testing programs need to be uniquely designed to match the needs of a specific institution, such as its size, how residence halls are designed, and whether classes are in-person or remote. Quick response to a positive test — communicating results and supporting isolation and quarantine of close contacts — is critical in reducing transmission. The rapid expert consultation says having a set of predetermined metrics with specific guidelines that inform decision-making, particularly around the types of classes offered and the sizes and types of social activities allowed, enables more transparent and responsive decision-making. Collaboration with local public health authorities and community partners is also key.

Undertaken by the Societal Experts Action Network, Encouraging Protective COVID-19 Behaviors Among College Students was sponsored by the National Science Foundation. COVID-19 Testing Strategies for Colleges and Universities was sponsored by the David and Lucille Packard Foundation and conducted in collaboration with the Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats, which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. The National Academies are private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, technology, and medicine. They operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln. 

Contact:

Megan Lowry, Media Officer
Office of News and Public Information
202-334-2138; e-mail news@nas.edu

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